Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has become a common imaging tool used in a variety of different medical applications such as diagnosis. During MRI, a patient is positioned within an MRI scanner and a magnetic field is formed around the area to be imaged. The magnetic field is applied at a frequency that excites hydrogen atoms that are present in tissue containing water molecules. The excited hydrogen atoms produce RF signals that are picked up by receiver coils that are usually positioned on the patient. These receiver coils are currently undesirably expensive and produce undesirably low signal-to-noise ratios. A low signal-to-noise ratio can increase scan times and/or decrease image quality.
For the above reasons, there is a need for an affordable MRI receiver coil that can provide an increased signal-to-noise ratio.